Berry Almond Tarts

This tart is a very simple recipe that I turn to whenever I need a simple dessert that doesn't need too many ingredients but I want something delicious.  The ingredients needed are puff pastry, butter, sugar, eggs, lemon zest, almonds, flour and berries.

The recipe:
1/2 sheet of puff pastry
20 ounces butter, softened
3 cups sugar
12 eggs
8 tablespoons lemon zest
2 2/3 cups almond meal
8 tablespoons all-purpose flour
20 ounces raspberries, blackberries, or blueberries


Take the sheet of puff pastry and roll it out to be about 12" x 16".  Take a fork and dock the dough all over to keep it from puffing up too much, as well as keep the baked puff even.  Place the dough on a rimmed cookie sheet and bake until golden in an oven pre-heated to 350 degrees. 
Cream the butter, lemon zest and the sugar.  Add the eggs one at a time, mixing well to make sure the egg is incorporated well.  Fold in the almond meal and the flour. 
Spread half of the almond mixture onto the cooled puff pastry that was baked.  Then add the berries, being sure to spread all over.  Then spread the remaining almond mixture on top of the berries and bake.  Bake at 325 degrees until the tart is set and the middle does not jiggle.

Note:  If you cannot find almond meal, you can take blanched almonds and process them in a food processor until they are ground finely.

Now that I've shared this recipe with everyone, I better make one to get my craving for this tart out of my system.  This whole writing about food and recipes does not seem like a great idea, especially since I've been making all of my favorite desserts and eating them all.
Happy chomps and nibbles.

Apple Streuselkuchen

So, this week I decided on trying something a little more out of my culture range and went German.  I was just searching the internet for something interesting to make and fell upon a recipe for a cake called the Streuselkuchen.  The name is a bit of a mouthful, but seems interesting enough to give it a try.  Besides I adore apples and so I think I would love this cake even if it wasn't so great.

1 cup all purpose flour
2/3 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup chopped walnuts
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 ounces butter, melted
2 medium sized apples
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
1 5/8 cups cake flour
1/3 cup cornstarch
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
9 ounces butter, room temperature
2 cups powdered sugar
1 Tablespoon finely grated lemon peel
1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise
3 eggs plus 1 egg yolk

Peel, core and slice the apples 1/8 inch thick pieces.  Then toss the apples with the cinnamon and cloves.

Mix first 4 ingredients in medium bowl.  Add melted butter and stir with fork until moist clumps form. 

Preheat to 325°F.  Butter and flour 10-inch-diameter springform pan.  Sift flour, cornstarch, baking powder, and salt into another bowl.  Combine butter, powdered sugar, and lemon peel in large bowl; scrape in seeds from vanilla bean. (Note: I could not find my zester for the life of me today, so I took a peeler and just took the rind of the lemon off and chopped it up finely.  Nice little back up plan when needed.)

Using electric mixer, beat butter mixture until well blended.  Add eggs 1 at a time, beating until well blended after each addition; beat in egg yolk.  Add flour mixture and beat just until blended.  Spread batter evenly in prepared pan (cake layer will be thin).  Slightly overlap apple slices atop batter in concentric circles.  Sprinkle streusel evenly over apples (streusel will cover apples).

Bake cake until streusel topping is crisp and tester inserted into center of cake comes out clean, about 1 hour 20 minutes.  Cool cake in pan on rack 15 minutes.  Remove pan sides; cool to lukewarm.  Serve lukewarm or at room temperature.

This cake was delicious.  I added a little berry coulis to give it some flare and color.  The coulis was made with strawberries and raspberries so that the tartness would help cut some of the sweetness without overpowering the dessert.  I hope everyone tries this dessert and loves it as much as I did.

Happy chomps and nibbles.

Toffee

 So with a craving for some sweets, I made some toffee.  But it can't just be a regular toffee, it has to taste good and make flowers and everything nice appears when tasted.  I love the taste of coffee with anything that is sweet and so hopefully, the coffee toffee will make the world a little nicer for today.
Of course there are many types of toffee and it can be made to taste many different ways, but I like to keep it simple.  Coffee maybe just a little plain and simple, but how can you go wrong with something that just tastes good and everyone loves?  The recipe follows.

½ cup butter, cut in chunks, plus more for pan
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup sugar
1 Tbsp light corn syrup
1 ½ tsp instant coffee

 Butter a  rimmed baking pan.  Measure out vanilla and set aside.
 In a  saucepan over medium low heat, stir sugar, butter, 1/4 cup water, corn syrup, and espresso powder until butter is melted and you no longer see sugar crystals.  Increase heat to high and boil, stirring occasionally, until mixture reaches 300 degrees on a candy thermometer.  Quickly remove from heat and carefully stir in vanilla (mixture will bubble up).  Immediately spread thinly on prepared baking pan and let cool until hard, about 20 minutes.
 Flex pan to release toffee.  Break toffee into small chunks and store in an airtight container at room temperature, should be good for up to 1 week.


Its simple and good.  I hope this brings smiles to everyone's faces on these somewhat cold last days of winter.


Happy chomps and nibbles.

My Favorite Carrot Cake

I wanted to make a cake that was somewhat healthy for you while being delicious and moist.  I decided that anything that had vegetables or fruits in it would be healthy to narrow the choices down a bit.  Then I came upon this recipe for carrot cake and thought: carrots, what could be healthier than carrots?  So I made some to enjoy with my boyfriend, and to also show him that carrot cake could be yummy and just as good as any other cake out there.  But just in case he didn't agree with me, I added a little marzipan carrot on top to make them just a little more appealing.


My recipe
4 eggs
6 ounces vegetable oil
14 ounces sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
9 ounces all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tablespoons ground cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1 lb grated carrots
2 1/2 ounces chopped walnuts

Whip the eggs, oil, and sugar until light and fluffy.  Sift the flour, cinnamon, baking soda, and baking powder.  Fold the dry ingredients into the eggs and oil mixture in 3 batches and then fold in the carrots and the walnuts.  Place in pan and bake.

Of course there has to a frosting on it and of course it has to be a cream cheese frosting otherwise it wouldn't be a carrot cake.

1 pound cream cheese, softened
12 ounces butter, softened
2 cups powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Cream the cream cheese and butter until smooth.  Then add sifted powdered sugar and vanilla and beat until smooth again.

I made these into individual little cakes by baking them on a sheet pan and using cookie cutters to cut out the shapes and assembling them.  But they can be made in a 9 inch cake pan to make a delicious 9 inch cake and decorate with marzipan carrots and the like.  Hope this recipe is found to be one of your favorites as well.
Happy chomps and nibbles.

Doughnuts...or is it donuts?

I woke up today with a craving for doughnuts.  Or is it donuts?  I can never remember which was correct.  Anyways, I want some doughnuts, so I make some.  I know there are like a million doughnut shops out there, in fact, there's one just across the street from me.  I just can't seem to make them like those doughnut places.  But how can I not try my hand at doughnuts especially if I find a recipe that has an out of place ingredient?  I saw that the recipe calls for 1/2 cup of mashed potato and I had to make it. 

I googled doughnut recipe and found a website that was called secret donut recipe, how could I not check that one out?  Everybody loves to know a secret, right?  So I check, and watch the video and all that, and I got the recipe.  It is simple and all the ingredients are pretty much in the cupboard at any time which make it convienient.  So here is the recipe that I found that seemed most simple.

2tablspoons vegetable oil
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup mashed potatoes
5 teaspoon active dry yeast
1/4 cup sugar
2 cups flour
1 cup milk

Warm the milk to just above body temperature.  Then add the yeast and mix until dissolved.  The milk should not be too hot or it will kill the yeast.  Mix the flour, salt, sugar, and potato.  Then add the milk mixture into the dry ingredients.  Roll out the dough to about 1/2 inch thick and cut out the doughnuts.  Fry them in oil that has been warmed to about 375 degrees F until golden brown.

So I make the recipe and it is delicious.  I didn't even make a glaze for them.  I just topped it with a sprinkle of sugar and that was done.  Now the next time I try making these suckers, I might go with a green tea glaze or some maple with bacon flavorings, but for this week, enjoy the doughnuts.
Happy chomps and nibbles!